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The OSKA-DH diesel engine employed a unique system (hereafter called OSKA system) which is composed of a single-hole fuel injector, an impinging disk and a re-entrant type combustion chamber. This study is concerned with the combustion observation of both OSKA-DH diesel engine and conventional DI diesel engine by the high-speed photography and video system. This video system enables us to take combustion photographs under the warm-up condition of the engine. From the observation of those photographs, the OSKA-DH engine shows the shorter ignition delay compared with a DI diesel engine and the combustion flame of OSKA-DH diesel engine are concentrated in the center of the combustion chamber and a relatively monotonous flame intensity are observed. THE AUTHORS HAVE DEVELOPED a new type of Direct Injection Stratified Charge Engine called “Direct Fuel Injection Impingement Diffusion Stratified Charge System” (hereafter called OSKA System).

This study is concerned with development of a new type of diesel engine using the fuel jet impingement (OSKA-DH). Simultaneous reduction of the NOx and smoke emission were demonstrated with single cylinder prototype OSKA-DH engine. As a fundamental study on the mixture formation process, the observation of impinged fuel spray was studied by using a pressurized constant volume vessel. The high-speed combustion photographs of both re-entrant and open type combustion chamber were also taken by using the experimental transparent engine. From the observation of pressurized vessel and high-speed combustion photographs, the mixture formation and combustion was strongly affected by the squish flow velocity. The short ignition delay and faster combustion were observed by the re-entrant type combustion chamber because of high squish speed.

The mixture formation by fuel spray impingement (OSKA system) was applied to a small direct-injection diesel engine in order to reduce the wall quenching- induced emissions, i.e., the emissions of THC and soluble organic fractions (SOF). Experiments were carried out using a single-cylinder engine, fitted with various piston cavity geometries, ran under a wide range of compression ratios and fuel injection specifications. The piston cavity was designed as a centrally located reentrant type. The combination of the high squish flow and the weak penetration of the OSKA spray was very effective in reducing harmful emissions. A short ignition delay, under the retarded fuel injection timing, was obtained because of the high compression ratio. The OSKA DI diesel engine showed reduced NOx, smoke, and THC emissions without deterioration of the fuel consumption compared to modern DI diesel engines used in automotive applications.

Selected as an alternative diesel fuel based on consideration regarding the relationship between the fuel molecular structure and exhaust emission and criteria as alternative fuels, Dimethylacetal (DMA) was evaluated in both a direct injection (DI) diesel and a Direct Fuel Injection Impingement Diffusion Combustion Diesel (OSKA-D) engines. Since DMA with a 1% commercial-type cetane improver has 53 for the cetane number, no ignition-assist divice such as a spark plug is needed, unlike methanol. According to the DI diesel engine test, the NOx emission for DMA was almost equal to that for hydrocarbon diesel fuel, but smoke for DMA was much lower than that for diesel fuel. The OSKA-D engine test showed that NOx emission for DMA was much lower than that for diesel fuel and smoke emission for DMA was zero under all engine conditions.

Ethanol is a promising alternative to fossil fuels because it can be made from biomass resources that are renewable. In the most cases, however, ethanol is blended with conventional fuels because of the limited amount of production. Ethanol-fuel blends are typically azeotropic and have a unique characteristic in vapor pressure and phase equilibrium, which is different from that of blends composed of simple aliphatic hydrocarbons. The current studies by the authors have developed a numerical vaporization model for ethanol-gasoline blends, which takes into account vapor-liquid equilibrium of azeotrope and high latent heat of vaporization of ethanol, in order to update the authors' multicomponent fuel spray model and to investigate effects of blending ethanol on droplet vaporization processes. In this paper, the developed vaporization model was validated through a comparison with experimentally-observed vaporization rate for single droplets of ethanol-n-heptane blends.

Auto-ignition and combustion processes of dual-component fuel spray were numerically studied. A source code of SUPERTRAPP (developed by NIST), which is capable of predicting thermodynamic and transportation properties of pure fluids and fluid mixtures containing up to 20 components, was incorporated into KIVA3V to provide physical fuel properties and vapor-liquid equilibrium calculations. Low temperature oxidation reaction, which is of importance in ignition process of hydrocarbon fuels, as well as negative temperature coefficient behavior was taken into account using the multistep kinetics ignition prediction based on Shell model, while a global single-step mechanism was employed to account for high temperature oxidation reaction. Computational results with the present multi-component fuel model were validated by comparing with experimental data of spray combustion obtained in a constant volume vessel.

A new scavenging method for two-stroke cycle engines - Multi-Layer Stratified Scavenging (MULS) - has been developed. The MULS method is achieved by separating the mixture generated by the carburetor into a rich mixture and a lean mixture between the inlet manifold and the scavenging ports, and by finely controlling the scavenging flows. With the MULS method the thermal efficiency and HC emissions of two-stroke cycle gasoline engines are considerably improved without sacrificing the brake specific power output and mechanical simplicity.

The new idea incorporates an impinging part in the central piston cavity. A relatively low injection pressure, lower than that of a conventional IDI Diesel engine, and a single hole fuel nozzle are used. The fuel spray is injected against the impinging part, spreads and forms a fuel-air mixture. Since a comparatively rich fuel-air mixture always stays around the impinging part and ignition is accomplished near the center of the mixture, steady, instantaneous and high-speed combustion is possible. As the fuel-air mixture is formed mostly in the cavity, there is little fuel in the squish area. Therefore, it is possible to prevent end-gas knocking, and in spite of the use of spark ignition, to employ a higher compression ratio than that of the conventional premixed SI engine. Experiments with a single cylinder prototype (4-stroke cycle) engine with gasoline fuel showed that the maximum BMEP was 1.0 MPa and the maximum brake thermal efficiency was 37.7 % (217 g/kW.h).

A new type of internal combustion engine has been developed. The new idea incorporates an impinging part in the central piston cavity. The fuel spray is injected against the impinging area, spreads and forms a fuel mixture. Since a comparatively rich fuel mixture always stays around the impinging part and ignition is acomplished at the center of the rich fuel mixture, steady, instantaneous and high-speed combustion is possible. As the fuel mixture is always formed in the cavity, there is little fuel in the squish area. Therefore, it is possible to prevent end-gas knocking, and in spite of the use of spark ignition, to operate the engine at higher compression ratio than a conventional premixed SI engine. Experiments with methanol fuel showed that BMEP was 1.1MPa and the maximum brake thermal efficiency was 42%. The combustion noise was lower than that of diesel engine. Brief tests with gasoline showed a maximum brake thermal effiency of 36%.

The new type of Diesel combustion engine has been developed. The new Idea Incorporates an impingement part in the central piston cavity. The fuel jet is injected against the impingement part, spreads and form fuel-air mixture. Single hole fuel injection nozzle is used and the relatively low opening pressure is needed. Intake air swirl is not needed. The re-entrant type combustion chamber is employed to get a relatively strong squish speed. Experimental with single cylinder 4 stroke prototype test engine showed that the brake mean effective pressure was 0.82 MPa and the maximum net specific fuel consumption was 220 g/kW.h. The NOx and smoke emissions was reduced compared with the conventional DI Diesel engine. The authors have developed a new type of Direct Injection Stratified Charge SI engine called “Direct Fuel Injection Impingement Diffusion Stratified Charge System” (hereafter called OSKA).

As a fundamental work on Direct Injection Impinging Diffusion Combustion Engine, fuel spray was injected momentary into a pressured CO2 gas and impinged onto a projection on a wall. Instantaneous photograph was taken and analyzed to clarify the spray characteristics. Nozzle opening pressure was varied to clarify its effects on spray characteristics. Nozzle needle was cut to form two pairs of flats on needle surface instead of its cylindrical one. The effect of this needle shape was also studied. Opening pressure of injection nozzle has produced very little effect on the spray tip penetration. Spray thickness is larger when needle opening pressure of injection nozzle is high. Spray tip penetration and spray thickness have become large when widths across flats is narrow.

Ignition, combustion and emissions characteristics of dual-component fuel spray were examined for ranges of injection timing and intake-air oxygen concentration. Fuels used were binary mixtures of gasoline-like component i-octane (cetane number 12, boiling point 372 K) and diesel fuel-like component n-tridecane (cetane number 88, boiling point 510 K). Mass fraction of i-octane was also changed as the experimental variable. The experimental study was carried out in a single cylinder compression ignition engine equipped with a common-rail injection system and an exhaust gas recirculation system. The results demonstrated that the increase of the i-octane mass fraction with optimizations of injection timing and intake oxygen concentration reduced pressure rise rate and soot and NOx emissions without deterioration of indicated thermal efficiency.